What is Nearsightedness? (Myopia)

Patients with nearsightedness, or myopia, are unable to focus clearly on distant objects. Nearsightedness occurs when light enters the eye, but focuses in front of the retina rather than directly on it. This is typically the result of an eye that is too long or a cornea that is too steep.

Myopia Symptoms and Signs

People who are nearsighted often complain of headaches, eyestrain, squinting or fatigue when driving, playing sports, or looking more than a few feet away.

What Causes Myopia?

People who are nearsighted have what is called a refractive error. This means that the light rays bend incorrectly into the eye to transmit images to the brain.

In people with myopia, the eyeball is too long or the cornea has too much curvature, so the light entering the eye is not focused correctly.

Light rays of images focus in front of the retina, the light-sensitive part of the eye, rather than directly on the retina, causing blurred vision.

Myopia Treatment

People with myopia usually are able to see a little better by squinting. This is caused by the different amount of light refracted into the eyes. All treatments for myopia have this same goal. Eyeglasses, contacts and different surgeries all have the goal of correcting this refraction error.

Eyeglasses and contacts are usually the first treatment people use for myopia. Depending on the degree of myopia, other techniques maybe used. LASIK Eye Surgery is the most popular surgery used to treat myopia. In this procedure the shape of the cornea is measured and changed to fix the degree of myopia using a laser. An alternative to LASIK, photorefractive keratectomy, PRK for short, uses the same concept of reshaping the cornea but uses different procedures.